The Human Centipede (First Sequence) Review

Synopsis: (from IMDb) A mad scientist kidnaps and mutilates a trio of tourists in order to reassemble them into a new “pet”– a human centipede, created by stitching their mouths to each others’ rectums.

My Quick Review: Finally after 3 years of postponing it, I finally watched The Human Centipede yesterday. And I have to admit I am baffled. Not by the movie itself but by the surge of negative reviews that seem to have followed after the release of the movie. Was The Human Centipede victim of its hype? It seems that horror fans were disappointed by the lack of gross out scenes that they were expecting after reading the pitch and, at the same time, many critics trashed the movie for being too disgusting/gross and so on and so forth (probably without even having watched 1mn of the movie. It feels like Texas Chainsaw all over again when in 1974 Tobe Hooper was accused to have made the most disturbing and violent movie of all time (when actually all of the kill scenes were shot off camera).

The same is true for The Human Centipede. It has a very disgusting concept at its center (sewing people together from ass to mouth) but it’s never gratuitous. Most of the surgery scenes are off camera and there is no close up on the eating/digesting part of the process. So if you’re expecting a lot of gore and visual horror, you will definitively be disappointed.

What Tom Six is showing us is not depravity but the result of an emotionless mad scientist project. And this is the main force of The Human Centipede: it’s main character. Dieter Laser is absolutely fantastic as Dr Heiter and IMO is now amongst the great villains of Horror Movies History. His polarizing performance is unforgettable and brings all the creepiness needed to sell his character. The movie works because of him.

So, you could always find some faults to the film (other than Dieter Laser, the rest of the acting is quite poor; it is lacking a bit in the gore department) but as far as Indie Horror goes, this is definitively a win for me. I’m now really looking forward The Human Centipede II, which was written by Tom Six as an answer to this movie’s critics.